| Abstract | Examined which dimensions of the situation model (time, space, causation, motivation, and protagonist) are monitored by readers during narrative comprehension. Clause or sentence reading times were collected in 3 experiments and analyzed using multiple-regression analyses. Exp 1 with 27 undergraduates showed that readers monitored temporal, causal, goal-related, and protagonist-related continuity because discontinuities on these dimensions led to reliable increases in reading times. This was not the case for spatial continuity. Prior to reading, 16 undergraduates in Exp 2 memorized a map of the building in which the events described in the narratives took place. There was a reliable effect of the spatial dimension, as well as of the other dimensions. In Exp 3, 16 undergraduates read the narratives of Exp 2 but without having first memorized the map. There was no effect of the spatial dimension, but the effects were again reliable for the other dimensions. Reading times increased as a function of the number of situational continuity breaks. The results are discussed in the context of the event-indexing model (R. A. Zwaan et al, 1995; R. A. Zwaan and G. A. Radvansky, 1998).
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